Violinists from 16 countries to show off their skills at Khachaturian Competition in Yerevan

YEREVAN, June 8. /ARKA/. Violinists from some 16 countries will participate in Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition in Yerevan on June 6-14, the head of board of trustees of the contest Armen Smbatyan told reporters on Saturday.

The first contest held eleven years ago had few foreign performers, but this year there will be violinists from 16 countries, Smbatyan said as cited by Novosti-Armenia.

Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition is widely put on a par with prestigious music contests, like Tchaikovsky Competition or Queen Elizabeth Competition, according to Smbatyan.

Twenty-five violinists out of 60 applicants were selected, including five violinists from Armenia. 

The jury composes of famous musicians Eduard Tadevosyan (Armenia), Sergey Kravchenko (Russia), Vladimir Landsman (Canada), Ino Mirkovic (Croatia), Paolo Petrocelli (Italy), Tong Weidong (China) and Igor Petrushevski (Great Britain), Smbatyan said.

Armenia’s deputy minister of culture Artur Poghosyan praised the country’s achievements as a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. Khachaturian Competition can be compared with Golden Apricot film festival as both present the Armenian culture to the world, Poghosyan said.

A decision was made this year to involve conductors in the future competitions as well, he said.

The 2016 meeting of the World Federation of International Music Competitions will be held in Armenia.

Head of marketing at Ucom Ashot Barseghyan said it was a great honor for his company to sponsor the competition.

“We try to support any event that aims at popularizing and developing the Armenian culture,” Barseghyan said.

Twenty-five young violinists from 16 countries, including Armenia, Russia, Romania, Austria, Korea, Japan, Serbia, Estonia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan, will participate in Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition this year. The competition is held by Armenia’s ministry of culture together with “Aram Khachaturian” cultural fund and Yerevan State Conservatoire under high patronage of the First Lady of the Republic of Armenia Mrs. Rita Sargsyan. –0--